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2014 is looking like another big year for Content Marketing. Do a search and you’ll find a vast source of predictions from the Content Marketing Institute, Mashable, research analyst Forrester, the IAB and others. All sources forecast business spending will be up for Content Marketing this year. Depending on whose report you believe the CM budget will increase 58% to 75%.

While more is spent on Content Marketing are the efforts more effective? At the recent Northern California Business Marketing Association (BMA) meeting in Silicon Valley, an experienced panel of Content Marketing experts tackled the question and shared their challenges and struggles to make content marketing a success.

Informative presentations, different perspectives and implementations were shared. One that I found most insightful came from Jeremiah Glodoveza, Director, Public Relations and Social Media at NetApp.

Much has been written and said about the importance of SEO and content strategy for CM success – but we have not heard much about (if at all) the need for organizational change to support CM effectiveness and success. Jeremiah shared that his company is in process of changing its marketing organization so it can better integrate content marketing campaigns – restructuring from functional silos to an interconnected organization.

Current Organization

New Organization

(These charts areexamples only, not NetApp charts).

The change will bring together marketing functions that often times are working independently and with goals that are not aligned .

The new organizational structure is intended to better support collaboration and consistency in messaging and campaigns as well as sharing common goals across marketing functions like PR, technical writing, and communications. Jeremiah believes that more companies will begin making this kind of change to their marketing organizations.

Hats off to NetApp for thinking out of the silo. Making a radical organizational change like this one isn’t easy. It will be interesting to find out if NetApp’s Content Marketing is more effective as a result.

This article looks at the benefits of having a cross marketing strategy and program. It is a first in a series titled “Energizing Your Marketing Budget: How to make the most of your marketing resources and budget.”

Cross marketing (not to be confused with co-marketing) is when two businesses partner to promote their products or services together. Cross marketing allows partners to share the costs of promoting their products – getting more from their marketing dollars. Webinars, trade shows, advertising, white papers, website links, and sharing customer mailing lists are cross marketing activities that when done together with a partner provide valuable business benefits.

Here are my top 5 reasons to include cross marketing in your plans.

1. Increase Customer Value: Together you and your partner(s) offer a more complete customer solution. Partnering with companies that offer complementary products can provide a solution that creates additional value for your customers. For this reason, choose a partner that targets like customers.

2. Strengthen Credibility and Reputation:The company you keep says a lot about you. When you choose a partner with a similar reputation in the industry, you further strengthen customer perception of your company and products.

3. Showcase Expertise: Participating in cross marketing promotions provides additional opportunities to showcase your expertise and reinforce the brand experience customers have with your product and company. When you choose to partner in cross marketing activities, these activities should always be consistent with your brand’s identity.

4. Broader Market Reach: With the right choice in partners, you increase your reach by sharing customer lists, customer referrals and by being included in your partner’s outreach activities; emails, newsletters, promotional materials and social media.

5. Build Strategic Relationships: Cross marketing activities can be a great way to begin or further strengthen a strategic relationship with a partner. By spending time getting to know each other, you potentially learn new methods to improve marketing results and ultimately help one another grow your businesses.

A few things to keep in mind when working with a potential partner that will increase your chances for success: Cross marketing partnerships range from simple to complex but to be successful the organizations should be in agreement on the goals, the budget and the timeline as well as have the necessary committed resources. Consider your communications styles, do you use the same channels to market? Are your budgets similar in size? Understanding similarities and differences at the start of a partnership can alleviate potential problems and increase the probability of realizing the benefits from cross marketing.

The next article in the series, Energizing Your Marketing Budget will look at making the most of your marketing resources and budget by taking advantage of free marketing services, education and materials. The article will provide examples of some of those offered byleading marketing product and services companies.

I recently read The Experience Effect by Jim Joseph. It’s about creating just that, an ‘experience effect’ that will drive consumers to a brand. As I read Jim’s book, it seemed to me that many of his lessons on B2C branding translate to the B2B world. A strong brand offers many benefits to business. It can make it more difficult to be displaced by a competitor, get you invited to the discussions by the customer, justify price premiums, even attract top talent.

On March 30th, Facebook’s New Timeline will go live for all Brand pages, whether or not your company has updated its page. Take this opportunity to create an engaging page for your brand over the weeks ahead. There are several changes you need to be aware of for your brand page. Below is a handy guide from hearsay social on what you need to know to create a brand page and links to blogs that cover the changes. Make sure you review the blog by TechCrunch’s Josh Constine. It’s thorough. For additional information and help go to the Facebook Help Center.

Here are a few key changes worth highlighting:

1. Cover Photo – The cover photo takes up a large amount of space spanning the entire page. Here you should choose a photo that supports your brand. It is important to know that Facebook Covers may not display calls to action or references to Facebook Like or sales promotions, pricing or website URLs.

2. Left Side Navigation – The navigation for page apps has moved to the right and below the cover photo with thumbnail photos above the text link. Four of these apps are above the fold and one is default for Photos. So, three of these four you can choice your apps. Pick your most important three. Unfortunately, this limits visibility for custom apps; contests, promotions, coupons, games, etc. since the default landing page for all users will be the Timeline page. Users will need to click through to find additional apps.

3. Messages – Messages can now be sent privately by users vs. posting on the public wall for all to see. This can be a benefit if you don’t want certain comments visible. You’ll need to determine a process internally to actively and timely respond to the Messages. For some businesses, this may create a burden. Try testing it for a few weeks to monitor the number of messages sent and your organization’s ability to manage it.

4. Timeline Bar – To the right of the cover photo is a new timeline bar that allows users to view a brand’s history over the years. It’s a great opportunity to highlight your favorite posts by you and your fans.

5. Pinning – This feature will allow you to pin an important feature story, promotion or event and post it at the top of the timeline for seven days.

6. Star a Story – You can also star a post to grab attention and highlight a story on your timeline. When you star a story, it will expand the full width of the page.

On our way out of Esin, a very popular neighborhood restaurant the other night, we counted no less than 5 Thank You’s. These came from every employee we passed on our way to the door, the wait staff, the bartender, the managers, and the hostesses. Each stopped whatever they were doing when they spoke. It made a memorable last impression on us.

How often do we make our customers feel appreciated and that their business really matters to us? Probably not often enough. We, as business owners, managers and employees need to take the time to Thank our customers. It can be as simple as a verbal Thank You like our recent experience, or a hand-written note, (a nice touch that stands out in our digital world), or a gift that relates to your business.

Saying Thank You is part of the overall experience a customer has with your company and part of building a consistent and memorable brand experience. Make the Thank You heartfelt and sincere. If it has any other intention than to truly thank them for their business, your customer will see it as disingenuous. In other words, don’t also ask for something you want from them. Make the Thank You about showing your gratitude for their business. You’ll leave a positive lasting impression and your customers will be glad they chose to do business with you.

Do you know the unique value you bring to your customers? The need to define a unique value proposition is key to success whether you are a B2B, B2C, for profit, or non-profit. Being able to fulfill a customer ‘want’ that no other company can and clearly articulating that value to your customers will grow your business.

What is a value proposition?

A value proposition is much more than the benefits that your company or product delivers. It defines why a customer should do business with you and not anyone else who provides the same product. It is the unique value that a customer cannot find anywhere else. Your product must have at least one differentiator that sets it apart from the rest to be successful.

Believe it or not, a value proposition shouldn’t be more than ten words to effectively communicate what is distinctive about your product. Be specific, clear and concise. This isn’t easy to do and requires time to refine but essential to the success of your product. You and your team may consider an off-site away from the distractions of the office to get this done.

A value proposition is brand defining

Unique value is a key element in brand strategy. How you uniquely fulfill the needs and the wants of your target customers defines your brand. Find out What makes your customers happy and whatkeeps them up at night. When your unique value provides an emotional benefit to your customers, you create brand loyalty and your customers will buy from you. Define your value proposition and you define your brand.

Steps to identifying your unique value proposition:

1. Take an inventory of your skills, what are you good at?

2. Clearly define your target customer and their needs and wants. If your product is segmented by vertical markets such as education or healthcare, each of these segments has its own set of needs and wants and most likely different competitive solutions. You will want to define a unique value proposition for each segment.

3. What gaps need to be filled in the market?

4. Complete a competitive analysis. What sets you apart from your competition? What is distinctive about your product?

5. Test. This is a key step. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups are good ways to see if the value proposition resonates with your customers.

6. Once your value proposition is defined and you are able to clearly articulate it, communicate it throughout your marketing efforts, website, collateral, and social media activities. Keep the message consistent but, you can customize it to fit the media.

One of the first true Go-Givers was Kris Kringle. In the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street, Kris employed as the Christmas Santa Claus at Macy’s New York department store, is committed to making everyone’s wish come true – even if that means sending them to another store. If Macy’s didn’t have what shoppers wanted, he sent them down the street to Macy’s competitor Gimbels.

Make Giving Your Passion and Success Will Follow

Kris’ behavior was seen as radical and disloyal by the CEO, Mr. Macy who wanted Kris fired. Customers were surprised by the level of service that directed shoppers to another store, but greatly appreciated his help. That appreciation translated into record sales for Macy’s. Realizing these results, Mr. Macy had a change of heart and directed all his employees share Kris’ sincere desire to help and do whatever it took to make the customer happy. Even if that meant sending them to Gimbels.

It’s a simple lesson Mr. Macy learned from Kris and one of the five laws that the book The Go-Giver drives home in a well spun story. The most successful in business develop relationships with customers and colleagues by giving more than they get in value, help, knowledge and expertise. Kris positioned Macy’s as the expert in retail. Macy’s became the store shoppers went to find the best places to buy their gifts. The simple idea of giving increased customer loyalty and growth in store sales beyond what any advertising campaign had attained.

The new year is an opportunity to refocus efforts on what matters most to your business – your customers. Make helping your customer and others in your life your passion and priority and your business will grow.

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About the Blogger

Susan Lowe is a career marketer who specializes in creating and executing marketing strategies and plans for businesses helping them realize their business goals by bringing energy, expertise and marketing intelligence to every project and client engagement. She currently is an independent marketing consultant located in the San Francisco Bay Area.